david weaver
I throw the warp in for free!

Actually, I bias mine toward the flat side so that they'll be a little tiny bit hollow in their length (it only takes precutting a partial bevel to do that) and then flatten the backs reasonably well before sending them out. There's about 5 minutes of flattening work in XHP.

LV's system is trick, though. V11's abrasion resistance would make it a bugger for beginners if it wasn't flat.

The bigger gain for me isn't in flattening, but in the quality of the ground stock from carpenter. It's as good as anything I've ever seen, and the good stability of the steel makes it easy to work with.

Hand made irons will never be confused for machine made and flattened irons, though, but the price is good ($0 with free shipping promotion).